Tributes to writer Albert Murray planned tonight, Monday

A dramatic program making its premiere on April 22 is based on Albert Murray's "Stomping the Blues." (Press-Register)

Mobile County native Albert Murray is an award-winning essayist, critic and novelist known for novels such as “Train Whistle Guitar” and “South to a Very Old Place.”

He has frequently worked music into his fiction, and also has written extensively about it, particularly concerning the influence and evolution of jazz and blues. Along with Wynton Marsalis, he co-founded the “Jazz at Lincoln Center” program.

Appropriately enough, he’s being honored by two local productions in coming days, in conjunction with Jazz Appreciation Month.

The first takes place Friday, April 22, when the dramatic production “Jazz Blues & the Holy Ghost: A Tribute to Albert Murray” will make its premiere at the Davidson High School Auditorium at 3900 Pleasant Valley Road.

The work is based on Murray’s landmark 1976 book “Stomping the Blues.” The script was written by written by Ala. Rep. Joseph C. Mitchell, with assistance from Janetta Whitt-Mitchell; the two have been active for years in jazz education issues. It is produced by Youth Empowered for Success and Legacy 166, Inc., with support from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Mobile Arts Council.

Mitchell said the production builds on Murray’s observation that the musicians who played in African-American churches in the 20th century often stood at a crossroads between sacred and secular music.

“He talked about the blues and jazz and he talked about the church, and how a jazz musician or a blues musician maybe had work playing the music all night Friday and Saturday and then as soon as he walked out of the gig on Saturday night, Sunday morning he would walk right into church and start playing for the church,” Mitchell said. “Well, they couldn’t leave the artistic expression that they played the night before. By the same token, they practice with the church all week, with the choir and all of that, for church programs. And then they go to work as they leave church. So they wouldn’t be leaving what they had at church, when they go to work.”

One example, he said, was the way Ray Charles based his 1956 single “This Little Girl of Mine” on the gospel song “This Little Light of Mine.” Another commonality was that both church and secular music were intended to be uplifting, even when it came to the blues.

The show features a band including Harry E. Anderson Sr., Jermaine English, Roderick Paulin, Gerren Porch and Lawrence E. Young Jr.; choreography by Lynne Irby Brown; an appearance by the Blount High School Dancing Diamonds; vocalists Harolyn Bettis, Theola Bright and Debbie Stewart; and poetry by Theola Bright, Jesse Chatman IV, Thomasene Rogers and Leon Turner.

The performance begins at 7 p.m. Admission is $5 at the door. For more information, call 251-478-9864 or 251-533-5726.

MOJO Jambalaya

The second Murray tribute comes on Monday, April 25, when the Mystic Order of the Jazz Obsessed, a local jazz appreciation society, will dedicate an installment of its popular Jazz Jambalaya series to the writer.

“Albert Murray: Stomping the Blues, a Musical Journey” begins at 6:30 p.m. at Gulf City Lodge, 601 State St. in downtown Mobile. The program, supported by a Jazz Appreciation Month grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, will feature special guests Charlie Smoke, Beverly “Miss Mitchie” McDowell, Geneo, Sue B. Walker & The Chris Sanders Quartet.

Admission is $8 for MOJO members, $12 for guests, $6 for students & active military with ID. The price includes a light jambalaya dinner; a cash bar is available. Secure parking is provided.